Canadian pianist Louis Lortie shows himself to be a skilled interpreter of Mendelssohn - both at the keyboard and on the podium - on a new CD with an interestingly varied program. The pairing of Mendelssohn's two mature piano concertos (from 1831 and 1837, respectively) is nothing new, but adding the "Reformation" symphony gives this disc unexpected depth. The symphony, begun in 1829 with the intention of having it played in 1830 for the 300th anniversary of Martin Luther's Augsburg Confession, was not actually heard until 1832 - and was so controversial (because of Mendelssohn's family's conversion from Judaism to Protestantism) that Mendelssohn came to hate it. Yet the work has remarkable richness and sobriety, as well as an exuberant finale based on the chorale Ein' feste Burg ist unser Gott. When played with warmth and lyrical sensitivity, on the one hand, and with a light touch and lively tempos, on the other - as the Orchestre Symphonique de Québec performs it - the symphony is wonderfully effective. So, in Lortie's hands, are the concertos. The more outgoing No. 1 sparkles in this bright, fast-paced reading, while the seriousness of No. 2 (especially its first movement) gets its full due here. All this music is familiar, but not in this combination, and Lortie makes a strong case for everything - including his own skill in the dual pianist/conductor role. -- Infodad.com, October 1, 2009

For his recording debut as conductor-soloist, Louis Lortie appears to have adopted the motto, "l'audace,l'audace, toujours l'audace."The demanding dual role is akin to directing traffic at a busy intersection while transcribing sonnets on a laptop. Lortie displays supreme confidence and a gift for meticulous preparation. The pianism dazzles and the OSQ responds in kind. This team exemplifies the exuberance intended by the composer. These performances sweep aside the current favourite (Brautigam/Amsterdam Sinfonietta/Markiz - BIS) to establish new benchmarks for the numbered piano concertos by Mendelssohn. Lortie and the orchestra render the same exalted level of service in the Reformation Symphony. It seems closer to Robert Browning's Fra Lippo Lippi in spirit than grumpy old Martin Luther and is all the more entertaining for that. The OSQ exhibits remarkable strength and finesse and the disc leaves the impression that they thoroughly enjoyed the sessions during April of this year.

This issue is a landmark in Louis Lortie's progress to consummate musicianship. Barring a major injustice, it should earn him a Juno Award and is deserving of the highest international honours as well. WSH -- The Music Scene, Stephen Habington, January 2010

Here is a study in contrasts.

The opening to the first movement of the first concerto on Canadian pianist Louis Lortie's recent all-Mendelssohn disc (for full disc details, click on the image) sounds like the soundtrack for the mad chase scene from a silent-era cops-and-robbers flick. The composer's instructions are "Molto allegro con fuoco" -- very fast and fiery -- so Lortie's pace is appropriate, but sounds as if he's pushing things a bit. The second movement, "Andante," slows sedate down to languid. The final "Presto," is, fortunately, playful rather than furious.

Pianists exploring contrasts is nothing new. Fortunately, Lortie has a lyrical mindset and a silken touch that gives each note a delicate edge appropriate for music from the 1830s, when Mendelssohn was in his early 20s. The most beautiful thing about Lortie's smoothly flowing performance in the first and more substantial second concertos is how he let's the music breathe, feeling free to slow down or pause to shape the narrative.

That Lortie can do all this while conducting from the piano is remarkable. The Quebec Symphony Orchestra sounds wonderful. Allowing the soloist to be the conductor ensures that there aren't the inevitable little collisions between the pianist's and conductor's ideas of where to slow down for a split second.

The great "Reformation" Symphony is a solid, stolid affair that occasionally tries to sound like Wagner under Lortie's determined baton.

There is no reason not to recommend this disc, but I've been listening to it on and off for a couple of months and can't develop any great fondness for it beyond admiration for Lortie's accomplishment. After all is said, done and listened to, the high-contrast interpretations strike me as too calculated. But what else can one expect from a pianist who has one mental eye on his fingers and the other on the orchestra around him. -- The Toronto Star, John Terauds, January 2010

Here is a study in contrasts.

The opening to the first movement of the first concerto on Canadian pianist Louis Lortie's recent all-Mendelssohn disc (for full disc details, click on the image) sounds like the soundtrack for the mad chase scene from a silent-era cops-and-robbers flick. The composer's instructions are "Molto allegro con fuoco" -- very fast and fiery -- so Lortie's pace is appropriate, but sounds as if he's pushing things a bit. The second movement, "Andante," slows sedate down to languid. The final "Presto," is, fortunately, playful rather than furious.

Pianists exploring contrasts is nothing new. Fortunately, Lortie has a lyrical mindset and a silken touch that gives each note a delicate edge appropriate for music from the 1830s, when Mendelssohn was in his early 20s. The most beautiful thing about Lortie's smoothly flowing performance in the first and more substantial second concertos is how he let's the music breathe, feeling free to slow down or pause to shape the narrative.

That Lortie can do all this while conducting from the piano is remarkable. The Quebec Symphony Orchestra sounds wonderful. Allowing the soloist to be the conductor ensures that there aren't the inevitable little collisions between the pianist's and conductor's ideas of where to slow down for a split second.

The great "Reformation" Symphony is a solid, stolid affair that occasionally tries to sound like Wagner under Lortie's determined baton.

There is no reason not to recommend this disc, but I've been listening to it on and off for a couple of months and can't develop any great fondness for it beyond admiration for Lortie's accomplishment. After all is said, done and listened to, the high-contrast interpretations strike me as too calculated. But what else can one expect from a pianist who has one mental eye on his fingers and the other on the orchestra around him. -- Toronto Star, John Terauds, January 2010

Here is a study in contrasts.

The opening to the first movement of the first concerto on Canadian pianist Louis Lortie's recent all-Mendelssohn disc (for full disc details, click on the image) sounds like the soundtrack for the mad chase scene from a silent-era cops-and-robbers flick. The composer's instructions are "Molto allegro con fuoco" -- very fast and fiery -- so Lortie's pace is appropriate, but sounds as if he's pushing things a bit. The second movement, "Andante," slows sedate down to languid. The final "Presto," is, fortunately, playful rather than furious.

Pianists exploring contrasts is nothing new. Fortunately, Lortie has a lyrical mindset and a silken touch that gives each note a delicate edge appropriate for music from the 1830s, when Mendelssohn was in his early 20s. The most beautiful thing about Lortie's smoothly flowing performance in the first and more substantial second concertos is how he let's the music breathe, feeling free to slow down or pause to shape the narrative.

That Lortie can do all this while conducting from the piano is remarkable. The Quebec Symphony Orchestra sounds wonderful. Allowing the soloist to be the conductor ensures that there aren't the inevitable little collisions between the pianist's and conductor's ideas of where to slow down for a split second.

The great "Reformation" Symphony is a solid, stolid affair that occasionally tries to sound like Wagner under Lortie's determined baton.

There is no reason not to recommend this disc, but I've been listening to it on and off for a couple of months and can't develop any great fondness for it beyond admiration for Lortie's accomplishment. After all is said, done and listened to, the high-contrast interpretations strike me as too calculated. But what else can one expect from a pianist who has one mental eye on his fingers and the other on the orchestra around him. -- Toronto Star, John Terauds, January 5, 2010

I had high praise for Louis Lortie's Liszt (July/Aug 2000 & 2001; May/June 2002). But the same barnstorming approach you really need for Liszt doesn't necessarily work for Mendelssohn. Lortie is at his most appealing in the slow movements of both concertos, where he seems as one with the Mendelssohnian muse: in 1 he captures the bardic element of the Andante beautifully, and he obtains rapt and warmly expressive playing from the cellos. Note also the magical play of piano against hushed strings at 4:26. In 2 soloist and orchestra are once again clearly "in sync" and Lortie's halting treatment of the solo line is absolutely fetching. But in the outer movements of both works he tends to come off as unduly brusque, even reckless, all too often tossing off fistfuls of notes at breakneck speed seemingly just to prove that he can (case in point: 5:07 into 1:I). There are places where the notes simply collide with each other, to the point that it almost seems as if his hauling up short for the lyrical subject of 2:III (as he should) is the real affectation, standing out amidst a blistering barrage that's no more fun to listen to than I would presume it is to play (that goes for the orchestra too). Of course Serkin peeled rubber too, but he made this high-spirited mischief erupt in joy where Lortie seems to be continually clenching his teeth.

Yet what's so remarkable is that no matter how carried away he gets, even in the loudest passages he never pounds, he never clangs-- purely from a tonal perspective the range of his instrument from the merest whisper to full and robust bravado is phenomenal. Even when one might wish to hear more from the excellent Canadian players it's hard to begrudge Lortie his front-and-center stance. (And he does take care to bring out the woodwinds-- so important to this music!)

But you can hear a good deal more richness of texture and detail in the Reformation Symphony. In this densely scored work that can seem hopelessly turgid with some conductors (Karajan), it's refreshing to find Lortie-- like Maazel (DG)--taking the con fuoco marking of the opening movement as written, urgent and unrelenting in the best Old Testament manner. Yet Maazel along with Paray (Mercury) and Bernstein in New York (Sony) still managed to find in this music a welcome gravitas that quite escapes Lortie; and certainly both Maazel and Paray had the good sense not to blow off the Scherzo like this--Lortie's jogtrot tempo is simply ludicrous. (Lenny does seem a tad weary.) The prayerful Andante likewise seems more restless than fervent; and once we get past `Ein' Feste Burg' Lortie is clearly attuned to Mendelssohn's joyous affirmation of his Protestant faith, yet there's also a nervous intensity that sometimes gets in the way--here too, Maazel and Bernstein pull it off better. Paray seems turgid at first but soon picks up the pace, and the Mercury engineers bring out far more plangent woodwind color. Moreover, only Paray resists the urge to drag out the final statement of `Ein' Feste Burg' to absurd length--with Lenny each phrase might occupy a different time zone. I'm fascinated to find that Lortie, like Mitropoulos and even the stickler for accuracy Toscanini, has the clarinetist do a trill at the close of the Scherzo. (What does the score say?)

In sum, even with Lortie's powerhouse reading of the Reformation Symphony this entry must finally rise or fall on the strength of the two piano concertos. With Serkin you also get the Violin Concerto with Isaac Stern, and the wonderfully fresh and spontaneous playing of Matthias Kirschnereit for Arte Nova (July/Aug 2009) is a must-hear too. -- American Record Guide, Steven J Haller, January/February 2010

Louis Lortie is mighty efficient, both as pianist and conductor, on a Mendelssohn disc offering both piano concertos and the Fifth Symphony (Reformation) with the Orchestre Symphonique de Québec (2617). His piano playing is impressive technically, perhaps a bit less so expressively. The accompaniments are very integrated, considering he is conducting from the piano. The symphony is performed briskly, without making much of the particularly Protestant melody elements. Very good recorded sound. -- Turok's Choice, Paul Turok, February 2010

Playwright and music critic George Bernard Shaw wrote of Pablo de Sarasate that he "left criticism miles behind him," and by all contemporary accounts the Spanish violin virtuoso was unique. In this week's featured recording violinists Gil Shaham and Adele Anthony pay homage to the great Sarasate with a collection of his most outstanding works.

Sarasate contributed no less than 54 published scores. He took particular interest in the field of opera, arranging melodies from works by Gounod, Weber and Mozart, among many others. Opening this recording is a magnificent performance of Sarasate's Carmen Fantasy, folding together the themes of Bizet's beloved tale of love and betrayal. -- Indiana Public Media, David Wood, November 2, 2009

This recording from Quebec's ATMA Classique label is a mixed bag in terms of both repertory and quality. The former aspect is a plus: the program of two Mendelssohn piano concertos plus the Symphony No. 5, Op. 107 ("Reformation") is a natural mix that covers several phases of Mendelssohn's career and might easily show up on a live symphonic program, but CD marketers do not so often mix concertos and symphonies in this way. Montreal-born pianist Louis Lortie plays and conducts throughout, which Mendelssohn himself might have done, and the results are generally enjoyable. The high point is the opening Piano Concerto No. 1 in G minor, Op. 25, written in 1830 when Mendelssohn was 21 and evincing a brilliant feel for the way Beethoven's idiom might be combined with the emerging tradition of the virtuoso showpiece. Lortie's Presto finale has all the verve, sparkle, and fun that the great champion of Mendelssohn's concertos, Rudolf Serkin, brought to these works. The weightier second concerto and the Symphony No. 5 are more dependent on the strings of the Orchestre Symphonique de Québec, which don't always deliver the goods in terms of intonation, and in the rather ponderous symphony, which is where the Romantic musical approach to religion really began, there is plenty of competition for this recording. There's an energy throughout that recommends this disc for Mendelssohn lovers, however, and the sound is clear and unfussy. A good choice except for those whose interest is specifically in the Symphony No. 5. Booklet notes are in French and English. -- Allmusic.com, James Manheim, January 2010

Violinists Adele Anthony and Gil Shaham unveil their shared passion for the music of Spanish composer and violinist Pablo de Sarasate (1844-1908) with a new recording, available today, on Shaham's own Canary Classics label. Adele, who makes her debut on the label with this recording, and Gil recorded Sarasate: Virtuoso Violin Works after a number of "centenary celebration" performances dedicated to Sarasate's music, including a November concert at New York's Lincoln Center , broadcast live on public television, and in "¡Sarasateada!", a series of Sarasate concerts in Valladolid, Spain. The new recording showcases the enormous appeal of Sarasate's dance- and song-inspired works, as well as the music's sometimes hair-raising technical challenges.

The Zapateado is a Spanish dance, which inspired a short work by Sarasate that is the eighth track on the new album (a full track list follows below), as well as being the music bed for the video. Watch closely for special guest appearances by renowned (and less well-known) luminaries from the classical music world. -- Interchanging Idioms, Chip Michael, October 3, 2009